Vandalism incidents are sweeping town

February 3, 2011

Coventry Police are investigating a string of vandalism incidents that occurred in town last week.
Several local residents in the area of Wood, Rathbun and South Main Street all got hit by the vandals.
Sgt. John Shields of the Coventry Police Department said that the calls started to come in to the station in the afternoon on the 20th. He said that all of the callers reported similar details for each of their separate cases leading police to believe that the incidents may have been committed by the same suspect or suspects.

The first call was reported just after 4 p.m. on Wednesday of last week. The caller told police that their neighborâ€™s vinyl fence had been spray painted. He said that the initials D and D were on there as well as several swear words and that they had been spray painted in red and silver spray paint. That home is located right on South Main Street.
Shields said that the neighbor reported that he had not heard or saw anything suspicious so really had no time frame for when the incident occurred.
Just a few minutes later, Shields said that a second call came into the station reporting another case of vandalism just up the street from the first address. Shields said that this caller told police that they had parked their red Ford 5000 in a driveway on Wood Street the evening before around 8 p.m. and that they had just returned to discover that the car had been vandalized. Shields said that the caller told police that there was silver and red spray paint on the rear bumper of the vehicle.
A few moments after that, Shields said a third call came in reporting similar details of vandalism not far from those incidents. This time Shields said, the caller told police that they had their Toyota pickup parked in their driveway on Rathbun Street, which is located just off of South Main Street and adjacent to Wood Street. When he came out on the 20th to use the vehicle he told police that he observed several derogatory comments had been spray painted on his vehicle. He told police that phrases such as â€œfâ€”- yâ€”-â€œ had been spray painted in silver spray paint on the driverâ€™s side and red spray paint on the passengerâ€™s side of his vehicle.
That wasnâ€™t the end of it either. A fourth call came in within the hour reporting that the garage door of a resident on Rathbun Street had also been hit. The same color spray paints and the same derogatory comments were used in this incident as well, Shields said.
Coventry Police Officer Benjamin Witt was assigned to investigate the initial calls. Shields said that Witt canvassed the neighborhood, spoke with local residents and developed several leads. He said that the officer had also obtained some surveillance footage and would be handing all of the original evidence over to detectives for a full investigation.
Shields said that detectives would follow up with all of the leads and would hopefully find a suspect, but are asking the public if they have any information about any of the incidents or information about who might be involved to call the Police Departmentâ€™s detectives division at 822-6225.